Picking up Chicks at Erldunda

Erldunda's main tourist attraction just got a whole lot smaller.

The emu pen is one of the first things you notice when you drive into the roadhouse about 220 kilometres south of Alice Springs.

 

 

While you may only see one or two emus wandering the fence line, it's now a flurry of activity, since eleven chicks hatched in the last few weeks.

 

 

Carer Jan Rolston says the males are proving to be particularly good parents to the chicks that are about 30 centimetres tall with black and white stripes.  "The males had been sitting on the eggs for several months, so it was certainly big news around the place when they all hatched.  "They're certainly very protective especially when the chicks arrive, it's difficult to get close.  "They'll fluff up their chest feathers and have a go at you if they get half a chance."

 

 

Ms Rolston says the father emu are protective with good reason.  "To be honest, there have been one or two that have disappeared and we presume that might have been hawks.  But we're feeling quite proud of ourselves that we've got them this far."

So where is Erlunda?

[ most of this was pinched off the NT Country Hour today......but aren't the emu chicks cute?]

Barking Owls Revisited

It is a quiet, cool, still and very dark "no moon", dry season evening.  Dinner is just underway.......then it begins.

The clear and distinct sound of a barking owl.  Yes, they have been around here quite regularly, for at least a year or more now.  BUT WAIT........there is not one but definitely two, and they are engaged in a steady, quite animated conversation.

Could it be we now have a breeding pair?

The conversation continues for some time.  A period of quiet.......and then a recommencement of the discussion.

It is now some 30 minutes later, and while now a little further away, there is still the distinct call of a barking owl.

There is a large African mahogany in the front yard, and I mean LARGE.  That is a favoured location it seems, and the area of this evening's discourse.

Usually when they are active and noisy, a short trip outside with a good high power led torch will quickly locate the bird or birds.  But tonight they were let be.........no need to interrupt any hi-jinks they may be up to in the tree.

More information on the barking owl is here - http://www.birdlife.org.au/bird-profile/barking-owl
as well as the previous post in 2010 -http://monsoon-frog.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/tree-climbing-dog.html









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Torres Strait Pigeons - New Home

The Torres Strait Pigeons used to arrive in Darwin about this time of year [very early pre- wet season], stay for the wet season, and leave in February or March.


They seem to now be permanently here, or at least there are many now who seem to make Darwin home. In Darwin house yards we have an abundance of palms trees, especially Carpentaria palms and they absolutely love to eat the medium sized, bright, red seeds. These seeds are quite acidic, and the pulp around the seed can burn your hands.........they love to eat that and then drop or sometimes excrete the actual seed kernel, along with some acidic waste pulp. That material can lift paint off cars!!


There has however, been much ado in our backyard lately........a breeding pair of the pigeons has established a nest in a palm tree in the back yard. Since residency has been established, we have had two significant storms along with very strong winds in front of the storm rain. They do seem secure in the site now.



Very early days..........definitely no eggs yet.


Watch this space for updates.




It is unusual, as I cannot remember seeing Torres Strait pigeons breeding in our yard before, yet we have had plenty of palms. We have a few large trees, so bird nests are not unusual, but most of the nests seem to be those of honeyeaters, another common bird in backyards.

A Tree Climbing Dog??

Well, actually..........NO.

However, it is VERY disconcerting to hear the sound of an apparent dog bark coming from up in the trees surrounding our house. We have a locally resident barking owl in our neighbourhood.

First noticed a few weeks ago on a quiet still evening, coming from behind the house, then in the large African mahogany at the front, near the street, then in the next door neighbour's trees.

A good quality torch was grabbed.........and there it was, back in the mahogany, then flew off a little way. Since then there has been a fairly regular cry in the evening.

We do have many trees around us, so there is plenty of sites to use.

There is a lot of information on this site: http://birdsinbackyards.net/species/Ninox-connivens
and some quality photos here - http://www.ntbirds.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=10

Obviously not so common in other places but it seems to be fairly common here in Darwin. The bird call is just like a quiet dog bark.

The Kingfisher

It is a wet, monsoonal, squally shower sort of day......very typical of monsoonal weather. There is a cyclone brewing up in the Indian Ocean, floods in Queensland, and terrible, terrible bushfires in Victoria. Typically an Australian summer!

We have had a visit to the yard from a kingfisher today. A very pretty bird, and there must be quite a few around the area, for I have seen a number of them recently along the Rapid Creek cycle path, in the trees and on the ground. Our family has always recognised a semi-resident king fisher......which has been christened "Kerry", but this one is smaller and maybe a first time visitor to the yard.

We have a large resident population of birds in the garden, including a lot of honeyeaters of various types, even with a few local cats, including our own at times. My view is that the local houses with pools, water features in the garden and similar facilities actually encourage birds, in comparison to the unwatered areas that would be there with the former native vegetation. It also helps that we are about 100m from a permanent creek.

Local Fauna

Parrots are a significant part of the Australian bird fauna. And none probably as ubiquitous as the galah.

These grey and pink parrots are great talkers in captivity, and long lived. They seem to be everywhere across Australia, and can be the biggest problem to grain growers......they eat the seed when it is sown, and then eat the seed once the crop matures, expecially for sorghum and millets.

But today it is very wet [60mm of rain in about 2 hours] and they were seen scavenging by the roadside........eating some local grass seeds.

They can be a pest on the road, and I must confess to having hit a few in motorcars, and even the odd broken windscreen. They tend to suddenly fly off the roadside, invariably one or a few heading across the road into the path of the traffic.

They did that almost immediately after the photo!

Black Cockatoos - Paraparap

Yes.....it is a palindrone, the call of the red tailed black cockatoo. Or that is how the local aborigines transliterate the sound.

Still reasonably common around Darwin, this flock were sitting happily in a large eucalypt near the airport.

They are large and very regal.


The sound is also the name given to one of Darwin's suburbs, but often shortenend to Parap.

Watch Out for Plovers

Plovers are common around Darwin, especially on open grass areas, including ovals and parklands.

They can be very territorial and often object to the presence of people. The usual trick is to dive bomb you, pulling aside at the last moment, often brushing your clothing or arm, or to come close to the head. Not as openly aggresive as magpies, but they can be confronting.

Today the tide is OUT..........BIG TIME!

We have an 8 metre tidal range around spring tides close to the time when the sun is directly overhead, here around the end of October. We were taking a few photos of the empty tidal flats, on grassland near the cliff top when there was a whoooooosh......as a plover flew past very close, then another and another........and then it was noticed. Another plover on the ground.....sitting eggs.

Her mate was not impressed. The sequence of photos tells the story!

He went whoosh.....while

Mother to be sat quietly for a while....

Then got upset

and there were 3 eggs!

Now she has become very stroppy!

Kerry the Kingfisher is back

We have an itinerant kingfisher who seems to visit our backyard periodically. Not necessarily at anyone time each year, but regularly, at odd times, several times each year.

Seems to enjoy a quiet sit on the Hills Hoist [ that impeccable creature of suburban backyards in Australia when backyards were big enough to have the space] and from which regular visits to grab the odd lawn grub are made.

Lawn grubs seem to be most common in October and November, but our friend has returned earlier than usual. Often spends up to an hour quietly sitting and watching as those smaller insects, worms and so on move around the lawn, swooping periodically to satisfy feeding needs.

Have not ever seen a nest, but ocassionally the pair and smaller offspring have been seen. But the brightly plumed male has strutted his stuff regularly!

We do have a good range of birds seen in the yard and nearby. The sulfur crested cockatoos ensure we never get to eat any five corner fruit......they strip the soft edges and leave the residues on the ground! There are often 4 or 5 birds at a time in the tree, as fruit ripens.

I am sure that a backyard pool provides a great water source in an otherwise dry period.